Subject: 'austraLasia' #363

INDIA: 'MEDIA SAVVY' ARCHBISHOP WILL BE REMEMBERED

adapted from reports received (J. Fox sdb)

DELHI: 24th June -- Archbishop Alan Basil De Lastic, late Archbishop of New Delhi and President of the Indian Catholic Bishops Conference, will be remembered for his 'media savvy' leadership of the Indian Catholic Church, Fr. C. M. Paul SDB said yesterday. Archnbishop De Lastic died, reportedly of heart failure, after a street accident in Poland when his vehicle collided with a cyclist near the Black Madonna Shrine of Czestochowa/Krakow.

Fr. Paul, a Salesian, has been invited to speak briefly of the Archbishop at the funeral in Delhi this coming Tuesday. Fr. Paul is head of the Indian branch of UNDA/OCIC, the international Catholic media organisations. He intends to mark the contribution made by the late Archbishop, via the media, to the lives of so many Christians who have been subject to violence and harassmanet since the BJP Party came to power in 1998.

Many of India's Catholic Prelates, of all three Catholic Rites (Latin, Syron-Malankara. Syro-Malabar)have spoken up about the loss to Indian Christians of this powerful spokesman. Salesian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati, said that indeed the late Archbishop had been called to his Maker 'while the struggle is still on.' 'He had emerged as a courageous spokesperson for the entire Christian community in these troubled times' said the prelate. The general opinion is that it will be difficult to find someone of the Archbishop's calibre to take on the mantle of leadership, and that in the meantime the Catholic Church and Christian community at large will be vulnerable without the strong defence that he had become so well known for.